A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell

(Washington, D.C., April 15, 2010) — Today President Barack Obama ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in hospital visitation. The new rule will grant hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners, and making it easier for LGBT people to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners.

A statement from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights:

“There is perhaps no more appalling and heartbreaking story we hear than when the partner of an LGBT person is barred from being at the side of their loved one in the midst of a tragedy or serious illness. In life’s most harrowing moments, loved ones are separated at the most critical time of need. Quite literally long-term partners have been sitting in excruciating fear and frustration in a waiting room while the love of their life dies alone in a hospital room. This action by the Obama administration will put an end to this inhumanity and assure that partners can be at the bedside of those they love.”

Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts said Thursday that the language of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act had been finalized, serious vote counting had begun, and LGBT activists should contact their representatives and senators.

Seven years ago Angelique Naylor and Sabina Daly met in Austin, Texas, fell in love, and moved in together. “We donated to charity, worked, and paid our taxes like everyone else,” Naylor, 39, tells Newsweek. “We also thought it was important to be married before we had a child.” So in 2004 they married and honeymooned in Massachusetts, and soon after adopted Jayden, who is now 4. They shared a business in the then-booming housing market as well as a quiet, upper-middle-class family lifestyle.

But like half of all heterosexual marriages, their relationship started to fall apart.

The House ethics committee has drafted rules that for the first time would define gay married couples as “spouses” for the purposes of filling out their annual Congressional financial disclosure forms.

Sure it’s Tax Day, but the good news is that it’s also our own Kate Kendell’s 50th Birthday! Yes, dears, 50 years ago in Utah, a new little honeybee was born in the Beehive State! Today we celebrate fifty years of sweetness from My Sister-Friend Kate.

So don’t get all grumpy and down in the dumpy because you have to pay your taxes today. Just think of how that little bundle of joy-buzz grew up to be the fine and fierce Queen Bee of our beloved NCLR.